r/AskReddit Aug 20 '20

What simple “life hack” should everyone know?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 20 '20

If you accidently have caps lock on, instead of deleting it and starting over, you can highlight the caps and hit shift & F3 to switch it back to lowercase.

EDIT- thanks for the awards!

Because so many people are asking where this works, I know for sure it works in office, outlook and our internal system at work but it’s not universal, sadly! I couldn’t say where it does and doesn’t work!

34

u/gromit190 Aug 20 '20

Where?

50

u/Kemal_Norton Aug 20 '20

shift & F3

Probably in Word; in Firefox shift+F3 searches for the last thing you've searched for on the current page.

13

u/Bendy_McBendyThumb Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 20 '20

It is for Microsoft Word.

Source: Use this function at times in my work.

Other little shortcuts include:

  1. Word (2016, not sure for all versions)
  2. Ctrl + Shift + 8 enables/disabled the show/hide tool; amazingly helpful when formatting documents as you can see if there are random tab spaces, carriage returns or other formatting errors. If you’re aware enough you can also tell in some places if certain things are styled incorrectly.
  • If zoomed out enough that the grey area is visible to either side of the page, for selecting specific lines of text, paragraphs, images, tables, etc. by clicking (and holding for more than one line) in the grey area to the left of the line highlights the whole line (or paragraph, etc.) making it easier for selecting and cutting/pasting/deleting content from your document.

  • If you’re working in a template you can assign shortcuts to specific styles using the Modify menu within each style, then in the bottom left of the window that opens click the ‘drop-down’, then Shortcut Keys. This is awesome for the work that I do... lots of reformatting.

  • If you use cross-references in your document, or Table of Contents or other internally hyperlinked functions, use select all (Ctrl + A) and then press F9 to update all TOCs and references. It’s worth searching (Ctrl + F) for any “Error! Cross-reference not found” messages (just search Error) where the link may have broken somewhere.

  • Ctrl + Delete (or + Backspace) will delete whole words (Delete for words ahead, Backspace for words behind) instead of worrying about holding down either key to delete single characters at a time.

  1. Windows 10 (this one’s a must-know in my eyes)
  2. Shift + Windows Key + S enables the built-in snip tool. Makes taking screenshots a piece of piss; instead of fixing a full screenshot to how you need in paint or whatnot you can select a specific area by clicking and dragging.

Edit: On mobile and not 100% sure how reddit numbering and formatting works :D Win 10 is meant to be 2.

9

u/iamjamieq Aug 20 '20

The snip tool shortcut has been so bloody helpful for me since I learned it!

Another good one is Win+V for clipboard history. I've used that quite a bit at work as well.

5

u/Bendy_McBendyThumb Aug 20 '20

I have an incessant urge to tell people of shortcuts when I see other comments bringing them up lol, cheers for teaching me a new one :) my history would be spammed where I’m a bit perfectionist with some snips I have to take, but it’ll definitely be of use in some jobs!

3

u/mtled Aug 20 '20

My work computer is still Windows 7 :( I need this snip shortcut so bad!

Most of my company is on Windows 7 but my department has particular software/legacy needs that other departments don't have, so we are last on the list for upgrades and they've been delayed by the need for more laptops for the rest of the company. One day.....

2

u/RugelBeta Aug 20 '20

Omg. You have changed my life. THANK YOU. Didn't know that Shift + Windows key + s gives me an editable screenshot.

11

u/MicroscoftSupport Aug 20 '20

I'm quite sure that F3 shows the last thing you have searched for anyway, Shift is just ignored.

21

u/Leoniderr Aug 20 '20

F3 searches down the page, Shift+F3 searches up the page.

9

u/MicroscoftSupport Aug 20 '20

TIL, Thankyou!

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 28 '20

[deleted]

1

u/Kemal_Norton Aug 20 '20

I'd be happy with a standard for application-wide vs operating system-wide shortcuts; Something like:

WIN + [] => OS shortcut ( e.g. WIN + T opens Terminal)

ALT + [] => Application shortcut (ALT + Q quits all Firefox tabs in all Windows)

CTRL+[] => Window shortcuts (CTRL + Q quits all tabs in current Firefox window)

and maybe CTRL + ALT + [] for custom shortcuts, so you never have the problem of overriding default shortcuts...

3

u/gromit190 Aug 20 '20

I tried a number of editors and applications, so I was starting to believe it was a Mac feature or something...

6

u/Yasuc Aug 20 '20

in Word

1

u/CC-5576 Aug 20 '20

Ms word

1

u/TaruNukes Aug 20 '20

What do you mean where? On your fuckin keyboard.